Article 9 of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member States to take
account of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services, including environmental
and resource costs (ERCs). Whilst legally the Member States have broad scope for discretion
when applying Article 9, the idea that the EU legislator has effectively assigned the Member
States a mathematical task to determine the level of cost recovery achieved for environmental
and resource costs as well is increasingly gaining ground in the Common Implementation
Strategy (CIS) process. The present paper shows that this strict interpretation of taking
account of environmental and resource costs has no basis in Article 9, is conceptually
misleading, and could even prove counter-productive for the practical application of water
protection
